Page 46 of Echoes of War

“I thought you were on my side here,” I countered, pushing myself up to sit on top of the table. I crossed my legs awaitingfurther instructions, my gaze set on the Pansie strapped in at the neck in the corner of the room.

Reina shrugged, her hands flowing up, surrendering. “I am. Just sayin’.”

“Next time, say less, and let’s get this over with.”

Reina took a deep inhale. Her long legs strolled over to the Pansie and motioned me over. I hopped down at her summons, trying to put on a display of confidence, but my shaky hands and the crack of my voice betrayed me.

“He can’t get out,” she said, her finger teasing in front of his face and he snapped at her, “Since Alexiares isn’t here for us to have options, I think it’s best we do our initial test from the source. Let’s keep him away from any major arteries, but I’m here to heal you up right after.”

“What happens if he doesn’t let go?” Abel asked, his fingers pressed into the side of his face.

“Then we kill him.”

I flinched at the voice, slowly turning on my heels to face a surely enraged man. Alexiares loomed in the doorway, still dressed in the gray sweatpants he’d slept in the night before. His dark long coat sat on top of the black hoodie now pulled over his disheveled hair.

“How did you—” I stammered.

He shoved past me and I fought the urge not to grab my now bruised shoulder. “Get out after you stockpiled every piece of furniture in front of the bedroom door and then melted the door handle and lock into the door frame? Quite fucking easily, with the help of my rage.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and glanced down at the ground. There weren’t any words I could offer that talked him down, and frankly, I was a bit pissed off myself. What other sign could a girl give to show that his presence wasn’t wanted here? Not that I wouldn’t have tried to break my way out if I were in his position.Honestly, I would have climbed out the window and scaled my way down, but that was me.

“Sheesh, don’t fucking bark if you can’t bite, Amaia,” Sloan taunted, her tongue skimming her teeth as she laughed at my sheepish display.

I rolled my eyes at her but decided against responding to either of them.

A hand grabbed my chin roughly and I found myself staring into pretty, angry, brown eyes. “Let me make one thing clear, Amaia, if you go down, thenwego down together.”

It was hard trying to force myself to look away. One glance at him, his rage, the pain that lay behind his expression, had me wanting to drop to my knees and grovel for his forgiveness. Then I remembered how much I’d protested for him to stay out of this and found my own fury all over again, thinking better of it. Instead, I simply nodded my head and jerked away from his grip.

“Aw, how stinkin’ cute!” Reina chimed from the corner of the room. “I can’t wait to see how this love affair turns out after whatever monstrous fight happens later … if you survive. Which I hope you both do, by the way, but if we want to get the results before we leave in a few days, we gotta do this soon. Plus, I think Frankie is getting a wee bit restless over there.”

“Who the hell is Frankie?” Tomoe asked, even though the answer was obvious.

Reina pointed in the upgraded Pansies face again, giggling as she noted she was still out of its reach. “He’s like my own personal little Frankenstein.”

“Frankenstein was the doctor, Reina”— I sighed, clasping my hands in front of my face — “not the monster.”

“Not surprised you know that!” Reina sang out. “Anywho, Frankie has both earth and air magic. It’s a fifty-fifty chance you’ll get one of the two. Any questions before we begin?”

Abel, ever curious, asked the question that loomed over us all, “How long is this going to take?”

Reina shrugged nonchalantly. “As long as it takes infection to set in. This technically isn’t a virus or bacteria; it’s a bit of both in a way from what I’ve analyzed. Judging by Michael and Logan, I’d say anywhere between twenty-four and seventy-two hours. There is one thing we need to discuss.”

“Of course there is, let’s hear it,” I said, willing her to just spit it all out at once.

“One of you will need to be the control group, and the other a variable. We’re short on time, so I need to be sure the others can replicate my work once I’m gone. If there’re any differences between incubation and overall results, I need to be able to instruct them further through my notes.” Reina brought her hair to the side and braided it back to stay out of her face for the duration of the experiment.

Abel wore the same expression as the rest of the room, utter confusion. “That’s a lot of words to mean things no one else understands,” he said for us all.

Reina moved to shake his shoulders playfully. “It means, only one of them will be bit?—”

“And she’ll inject the other from those tubes,” I said, pointing to the assortment on her lab table, “attached to the agitator thingy I’m guessing.”

She nodded in confirmation. “My father, based on Moe’s vision, is injecting people, but as we know, bites appear to be effective too. We need to figure out the difference or if it’s only a matter of convenience.”

“Isn’t your father injecting people and having them turn to zombies?” Sloan asked, a peek of interest lingering in her icy eyes.

“Uh, yes,” Reina replied with less confidence than I would have preferred at the moment. “But I was able to adjust what Ithink, for lack of a better word, the recipe was. I don’t think that would happen here. At least I hope not.”

---